New York-listed Eagle Bulk Shipping has made its first move in attracting debt financing for some of the seven secondhand bulkers it has acquired since last autumn.
The Gary Vogel-led owner said in a securities filing on Friday that it has agreed with lenders Credit Agricole and Nordea on terms of a revolving credit facility for up to $35m secured by three ultramaxes it acquired from Scorpio Bulkers in late 2020.
The facility, which matures in December, carries a margin of 240 basis points over Libor.
Eagle said it had already drawn $24m from the lending, which is secured by two vessels already delivered – the 63,600-dwt Helsinki Eagle (built 2015) and 64,000-dwt Stockholm Eagle (built 2016) – and one yet to come, to be renamed Rotterdam Eagle.
The Stamford company has a variety of debt instruments and may have opted for flexibility in choosing the revolving facility over a conventional term loan.
Eagle purchased four ultramaxes for Scorpio and three 2011-built supramaxes from Alterna Capital. The latter could also see debt added.
Eagle used shares as partial payment for the Alterna buys and for one of the Scorpio purchases, plus a total of $86.3m in cash. The shares were valued around $12.4m at the time of the purchases, pushing the outlay to some $98.7m.
Eagle is thought to be looking to finance between 50% and 60% of the outlay, so a total debt figure in the range of $55m is yet possible.
Eagle has built its total fleet to 52 owned bulkers, all in the ultramax and supramax classes.
